Research

My field of interest actually very much depends on ethnography to be successful. Graphic designers design visual things. They design things that appeal to the eye. That is their job. To appeal to someone's eye, to create something attractive to a particular audience, you have to learn, study, and acquire as much information about them as you can. According to TIMOTHY DE WAAL MALEFYT, BBDO Worldwide Advertisement, "The last few decades, have witnessed a bur- geoning rise in the application of ethnography for design, marketing, and consumer research. Popular press articles have widely celebrated anthropology, and partic- ularly ethnography, as a new business tool to gain insight into consumers’ lives (Ante 2006; Garza 1991; Gomes 2006; Kane 1996; Miller 1990; Tischler 2004)." This new rise of ethnography relating to graphic design is imperative to learn for anyone learning any kind of visual art. 

Examples in Modern Day Advertising

The recent "got milk?" advertising campaign was, and continues to be, an extremely successful advertising operation. They took hold of pop culture and used it to their advantage using things that almost every consumer will recognize and can relate with. This relation/recognition between consumer and ad is exactly what every company is trying to go for.

As below, even T.V commercials harness Ethnography to better convey what they have to sell, or a message they are trying to get across to the viewer.

Above, the internet T.V/Movie watching site Hulu, uses, or even pokes fun at, American culture of being "couch potatos" or having "rotting brains" because of television. To understand this commercial, for it to be effective, people have to be familiar with the culture. It works because the designers have studied our culture, or better yet have lived it and understand it.

This ad above triggers our cultural knowledge about OTHER cultures besides our own.

The above add for Power-Bars, harnesses the cultural view of "Being the Best 'You' you can be." Even Oprah conveys that through her shows with her "best life" series. It is an accepted cultural fact that everyone should want to be the best they can be. So with that in mind, the designers of this ad used that to their advantage signalling that urge in all of us that wants to be the best.

Above here, 3M, uses the culturally absurd to get their point across. Learning what is normal, and what isn't (such as leaving a ton of money in the middle of a subway) can give you a surprising angle in advertising. You can only learn that through ethnography.